Former Bayfield Marshal Jim Harrington has been released from a Denver-area hospital after being critically injured in a horseback-riding accident last month.
He and his wife, Robin Harrington, were on their way home Wednesday.
“I’m doing alright,” Jim Harrington said Wednesday night from a motel in South Fork. “All those broken ribs ... they’re trying to heal. When they try to heal, the nerve endings are trying to heal, and if you do anything hard to them, they let you know, and I mean to tell you, they let you know.”
Harrington, 66, was thrown from a horse, kicked in the head and rolled on top of Sept. 26 while riding in the Granite Peaks area of San Juan National Forest. He suffered serious head injuries, a broken right collarbone, a punctured lung, 10 broken ribs in his back, eight broken ribs on his right front and five on the left.
His son did chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to get him breathing again. He eventually was flown by a helicopter to a hospital.
“After all the trauma, I’m still on the right side of the grass,” Harrington said Wednesday. “I don’t know why, in one aspect. In the other aspect, I do, because my youngest son did CPR. He did that on me and brought me back.”
Harrington said he’s able to stand and walk short distances. He has months of physical therapy and speech therapy ahead of him.
“I’m taking it day by day,” he said. “It’s coming along.”
He and his wife thanked the community for the many warm wishes they have received.
Robin Harrington said she can’t keep up with the thank-you notes.
“I just want everyone to know how blessed we are and how thankful we are. If they don’t hear from us, please don’t take it personal. I just want everyone to know we love them.”
Friends have organized a benefit dinner for Friday in Bayfield to help the Harringtons with medical expenses.
Harrington said he’s working toward a full recovery.
“I know they sold my horse, so I can get a different one, one that’s a little gentler, that isn’t going to be a knothead like this one was.”
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A benefit dinner to help pay medical expenses for Jim Harrington will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Pine River Valley Church, 1328 County Road 501 in Bayfield.
The event will include a dinner of chili and Frito pie, silent auction and bake sale. The cost is $10 per person or $40 per family.
To volunteer or donate for the event, call Casie McAteer at 799-2318 or Bill Miller at 884-9161. All proceeds will go to the Harrington family for medical expenses.
